Putnam's Job Killers? Not Hardly.

Halburn's Negative Attitudes Killing Putnam County Jobs



Halburn's latest screed tries to blame Putnam County Commissioners Stephen H. "Steve" Andes, James H. "Jim" Caruthers, Raymond "Joe" Haynes, Hurricane Mayor Scott Edwards and others for all the ills he sees in Putnam County's business climate.

He claims that business, transportation, and education projects have been killed by those local officials. He calls their voting records anti-business and anti-progress and says they're keeping business and progress from Putnam County which hurts our community and causes needless job losses.

That just isn't true.



As he did, we'll also start with the picture above this paragraph. That's a vacant lot behind the Mi Pueblito Mexican Restaurant, in Hurricane - near Gino's and Tudor's.



Halburn complains that in 2004, Putnam County Commissioners Steve Andes, Jim Caruthers, and Joe Haynes turned down a Tax Increment Funding proposal that was needed to build an office building and retail stores. The lot remains vacant, allegedly costing Putnam County construction, office, and retail jobs.

First of all, you stupid bastard, Joe Haynes wasn't even on the County Commission when this decision was made.
At that time the Commission President was Jim Withrow with Andes and Caruthers being the other two members. But that's just the kind of shoddy reporting we've come to expect from Putnam County's news loser.
(ed. note: After reading it here, Halburn went back and changed the name on his blog to Jim Withrow. You can send us a check for the proofreading, you fat fuck.) Tax Increment Funding money is created when a property is assessed before the property is developed, and then it is reassessed after development. The difference between the two tax values is used to pay back bonds that fund the development.

At the time, WV Commerce Secretary Kelley Goes said that the state approves tax increment financing for water, sewer, road and other "off-site" infrastructure improvement projects.
"We typically don't do retail and residential development," Goes said. "Our philosphy with TIF is you exhaust all other funding allocations, and TIF fills the gap."

So what is the real story here?
Developers approached the Commission about using TIF money to fund their project.
How much are we talking about here?
SIX MILLION DOLLARS!
And WHO are we talking about here?
Former barber and state senator Oshel Craigo.
The man who owns Gino's Pizza, Tudors Biscuit World and a string of other businesses and land all across the state.
He milked the people of West Virginia for 22 years in the WV Senate and then he then wanted them to finance his latest project.
A 16,000-square-foot office building and another building for retail stores. The office portion was to be occupied by the Department of Health and Human Resources which would then move from Teays Valley to Hurricane. Which, by the way, would have doubled the rent that they were paying.
The County Commission said no.
The site could have been developed without TIF funds, but it has not. The County Commission is not to blame for that.

Oshel Fucking Craigo can get financing on his own. He doesn't need the people of West Virginia to underwrite his development projects.
The County Commission's vote wisely saved the citizens' money.
They were right to keep the taxpayers from getting clipped again by Oshel the Barber.
Hallburn takes money from Craigo's companies for ads on his blog, a fact that he does not disclose.

His next whine is is about Rt 35 and another one of the politicians that he has a vendetta against, Karen Facemyer. Facemyer is another Putnam county representative that Hallburn has repeatedly harassed over his non-existent noise issues.



His complaint about this matter? He blames West Virginia
Senators Karen Facemyer, (R-4th) and Mike Hall, (R-4th) for not getting U.S. 35 completed, saying they "drank the "no tolls" Kool-Aid." After their constituents spoke out against any tolls on that road, they took the position that the segment could be built-without tolls. Which it could have been.
Facemyer and Hall both did something that is rare in politics today. They listened to the wishes of their constituents and acted accordingly. They did what they were elected to do.

Where was Hallburn during this debate? All over the map.

First he said "Finish the new US 35 - Even if it means tolls."
Later, when County Commissioner Haynes came out in favor of tolls if it would help complete the road, Halburn criticized him for it! Why? Because whatever Haynes is for, Halburn is against.
He criticized Mason County officials for changing their vote endorsing the tolls after they learned the tolls would increase yearly.

Like fellow liberal John Kerry, Hallburn was for the tolls before he was against them.

Then after the public outcry over the tolls and the was the whole matter was handled, Hallburn suddenly eschewed tolls and called for the road to be completed with tax dollars.
He even called Senator Hall " a genious" (sic) for his plan to finance the road through budget surplus money.

Looks like Hallburn has blisters on his fat ass from riding the fence on this matter. There's also a word for what he's doing here: hypocrisy.



Then there's the old Black family airstrip located just above the Hurricane Walmart and Hurricane Marketplace. Several years ago, the Blacks offered half of that property, free of charge, to Marshall University to build a Putnam County campus. Marshall said "No, thanks." The County Commission was even willing to sell bonds to finance the construction. The lot is still vacant.

We fail to see how any politician at any level is responsible for this. Marshall made a business decision. With the main campus less than 25 miles away in Huntington, regional centers in Teays Valley and Pt. Pleasant and a Graduate School in South Charleston, Marshall obviously saw no need to spend the money to build an unneeded facility in Hallburn's backyard.
Certainly Hallburn's profanity laden article about Marshall's plans to build a new center didn't help.



Next, he moves on to harping about the vacant land owned by the Putnam County Development Authority above the Hurricane Marketplace.

This time, he blames another one of his favorite whipping boys, Hurricane Mayor Scott Edwards for the land not selling. Hallburn came up with a hare brained scheme that the PCDA donate the land as a park to create business traffic for the Hurricane Marketplace. Apparently, they're the bad guys for not giving away land paid for with public money.
He continues to complain that the Hurricane Marketplace still has six empty stores, refusing to recognize that the country is in the worst economic downturn since the great depression, overseen by his fellow über-liberal, President Barack Hussein Obama. And that malls across the country are suffering the same problem.

And, as usual, he unethically neglects to inform his 29 readers about his interest in developing that land. He thinks it will increase the value of second wife's run down property and make it easier to sell.

He continues to blame Edwards and the PCDA for not buying the dilapidated, overpriced property owned by his second wife and her mother by saying by saying that he has refused to redevelop the Walmart neighborhood. Halburn has compounded his stupidity and unwillingness to take responsibility for his own problems by refusing to build his own soundwall and plant his own trees to protect his family from the non-existent "excessive noise" from the store.

The photograph below shows the location in Teays Valley where Sheetz wanted to build.



Sheetz applied for a zoning variance with the Putnam County Planning Commission. It was denied.
The Planning Commission's reasoning?

Sheetz gave an inadequate explanation of safety issues associated with the location of a new traffic light. The site sits between two residential neighborhoods that are in extremely close proximity to the proposed light. A new traffic light could just as easily create problems which may be worse than what currently exists. Safety concerns were also raised regarding children at the bus stop at Green Acres and White Rock Subdivisions.
Sheetz had no answers about how to correct these problems, so the variance wasn't approved.
There's no evil intent. Just a common sense ruling. Sheetz is free to correct the problems, answer the questions and reapply.

Of course Hallburn's desire for a donut and a cup of coffee outweigh the need to keep our neighborhoods and children safe.

Hallburn says more jobs were killed by the politically-appointed bureaucrats. We think that Halburn was embarrassed once again because another project that he promised would happen fell through.

Then we get to the pools. Somehow we always do.

Every year at the end of the summer, Halburn starts complaining about the pools closing.
He whines that closing the pools before Labor Day puts lifeguards out of work.
No, numbnuts, the lifeguards are out of work because they're back in school. They voluntarily left their jobs. It doesn't effect the unemployment rate one iota. That's why the pools are closed. There are no customers. They're all back in school. It's not economically feasible to keep a pool open for a couple of swimmers a day. Try and get that through your thick skull, fatboy.

He continues his bitching saying in Eleanor, the Putnam County pool also closed early. Then he complains about the $158,000 renovation of the pool. After decades the shoddily built pool was in dire need of repairs. Somehow, Haynes, Andes, and the Putnam County Parks and Recreation Commissioners were apparently responsible for this damage even though they've only been in office a short time.



Then he complains about green water at the pool, saying they still aren't maintaining it properly. Of course they're not, asshole. THEY'RE NOT MAINTAINING IT AT ALL!!! The pool is closed for the winter. That's why it's only half full.

And then there's the Dog Swim. Started by Karen Haynes (who Hallburn called a bitch, by the way, because she is married to his enemy Joe Haynes) as a way to raise funds for a new county animal shelter, this has been a pet peeve of animal hater Mark Halburn since its inception. He moans about the fact that the pool is usually closed before the swim due to the lack of lifeguards, saying that in 2010 the swim, which is only for a few hours on one day, cost more than $1,142 by using some arcane mathematical calculations. PutnamLIES.com proved those numbers wrong when we determined the actual cost for the day was only $250.



The next dead horse he attempts to whip is the proposed kiddie pool at Waves of Fun in Valley Park. In the grass below the wave pool he says there should be a kiddie pool.



And once again, you guessed it, it's all Andes, Caruthers, and Haynes' fault for turning down a $250,000 grant and canceling the kiddie pool project.
No, what they did was turn down a grant that would have required the taxpayers of Putnam County to cough up a matching $250,000 in order to receive that grant.

 














And once again Hallburn talks about screwing kids.


This is the photo Mark Hallburn stole from Scott Edwards and added to his opinion blog.

Earlier this year, Hurricane Mayor Scott D. Edwards brought out a group of children for the groundbreaking ceremony of the sprayground at Hurricane City Park. It was supposed to open by August. However, Edwards wisely decided to save the taxpayers money by having city workers install the facility instead of spending $50,000 $100,000 to hire outside contractors.



What's Hallburn's problem?
Project delays prevented the pool from opening this summer.
Now, crews will have plenty of time to get things right instead of rushing the installation only to have the facility open for a couple of weeks at the end of the season. That $50,000 $100,000 Hallburn claims that Hurricane would have quickly made it up by families flocking to the town and shopping before and after the kids enjoy the sprayground. That kind of money is not generated by people swimming ALL SUMMER, much less in two weeks. Once again Halburn demonstrates his lack of business acumen by saying that positive publicity would have been valued at more than $50,000.
Publicity isn't worth shit, lardass. If it was, your negative publicity would have run you out of town years ago.

There's a pattern here: If it's one of Hallburn's political enemies: attack, attack, attack.



Hallburn isn't finished with his stupidity. He has this lame brain idea to to rename Orchard Park Road and Saturn Way to Hurricane Motor Mall, as if that's going to sell some cars.. Calling something a "motor mall" doesn't make it so. It's not any government's job to tell businesses what name to operate under. This is just one more just another way for him to attack Scott Edwards.

If Hallburn is serious about jobs, there a few things he can do.

First, get one himself.

Second, hire some employees for his oh so successful & lucrative opinion blog.

Third, move the "offices" of that oh so successful & lucrative opinion blog out of his second wife's basement into one of the vacant storefronts that he is constantly complaining about.

And fourth and most importantly, stop running down and harassing those business and government leaders that he disagrees with.

After all, how many businesses want to locate in an area where they have to worry about some asswipe with a blog badgering and extorting them into taking out an ad or have to worry about him making a scene because he thinks someone treated him rudely?

As for Hallburn, the gutless pussy with all the answers doesn't even have the balls to run for election, because he knows he would be soundly defeated for any office that he would run for and his inflated ego won't let him accept that fact. Putnam County voters are pretty smart, they see through his act.
But you really wouldn't expect a "man" who won't take responsibility for his own problems to take responsibility for others, would you?

Stop blaming everyone else for the problems you've created for yourself, crisco and look in the mirror. If you're so goddamn smart and have all the solutions, step up. Show your true colors and run for office. Negativity kills jobs!
Put up or shut up!

Happy Birthday To Us!

It's been exactly two years now since we decided we'd had enough of Halburn's shit. He can no longer abuse with impunity Putnam County's citizens, government officials or anyone else that disagrees with him. Our mission when we started PutnamLIES.com was to expose the lies, hypocrisy and unethical behavior of PutnumLive and its "publisher" Mark Hallburn.

And that we have done.

We are now THE outlet for people to answer the scurrilous charges that he makes.

He has discovered that it's not so fun when the sandal is on the other foot.

It was a big year for PutnamLIES.com and Hallburn continued his long slow slide into oblivion.

So with that said, let's look at the last year.


Pool Whining Continues

Halburn continued his yearly whining about the pools closing the last week in August due to the lifeguards all going back to school.

Then in the spring, we proved him wrong on the cost of holding the end of season Dog Swim.

And it's coming again, so get ready.


Halburn Strokes Out

In October, the news the world was waiting for was released. Halburn had stroked out.

Unfortunately for everyone it was only Bell's Palsy and he is expected to recover.

But he does have diabetes, high blood pressure and sleep apnea, so there is still hope.


Rezoning Maps

Hallburn's investigative reporting uncovered the double secret zoning change to his second wife's property. Except it wasn't her property.PutnamLIES.com proved his allegations wrong. Again.

Anyone that could read a deed and a map could see that.

Except the dummy.

Calls Karen Haynes "A Bitch"

Last fall Hallburn started douching up the trailer park of the internet, Topix, with his presence. In October he called the tireless Karen Haynes "a bitch" because she is married to Hallburn's imagined nemesis Joe Haynes and because of her tireless work raising funds for a new Putnam County Animal Shelter.

Hallburn, you're not fit to scrape the dogshit off this lady's shoes. 
Fired Again

Shortly thereafter, he lost his insurance job with Woodmen of The World, after an incident where he harassed several people at Buffalo's Octoberfest, while he was there representing the insurance company.

Election Warning
Just before the general election in November, the West Virginia Secretary of State sent a warning to Putnam County officials that Halburn might attempt to create a scene and try to disrupt the electoral process. Due to the proactive efforts of the prosecutor and sheriff's office a potential problem was averted.

Desperation Redesign
Late in the year, in a desperate attempt to attract advertisers and bolster his shrinking readership, Hallburn had his news blog redesigned. Now he has a hit counter so he can falsify the number of imaginary readers that he thinks his site gets. He even let the genius that did the redesign to change his URL from a .com to a far less desirable .net.

MySpace 1994 has become MySpace 2010. The same old shit with a barely new look. Proving once again that you can't polish a turd.

Which led to: 

Hit Counter Proven To Be A Fraud

PutnamLIES.com's IT expert showed how Hallburn inflates his hit counter by loading almost 100 different links on every pageload, thereby artificially inflating the actual visitors by a factor of 100. We proved his actual daily readership was about 29 readers.

Form Letters From Politicians

After being exposed multiple times by PutnamLIES.com for stealing letters to the editor from other sources, Halburn was reduced to running press releases from politicians as letters promoting their agendas and Facebook comments masquerading as letters.

Started Running Coupons

Proving that his blog is truly nothing more than a cluttered advertising shopper, Hallburn started running coupons.

Continues Running "News" Stories About "Advertisers"

He continues his unethical practice of running fawning stories about his so-called advertisers under the guise of news.

We're putting you, your "advertisers" and anyone else you promote on notice, fatboy. We are going to parody and belittle all of you. If you're a business and you don't want it done, don't associate with Hallburn. He is a boil on the ass of civilized society and we're here to lance it.

Election Ad Fiasco

We exposed the fact that ads for both Betty Ireland and Natalie Tennant that Hallburn placed on his blog before the Gubernatorial primary were not authorized and were not paid for by either campaign, despite containing the "Paid For By" disclaimer at the bottom, a clear violation of WV election law.

Both the candidates and their supporters wanted NOTHING to do with Hallburn or his blog. Hallburn was never able to provide any proof that the ads were paid for, a fact which both candidates' financial reports confirmed.

Narrowly Avoids Arrest in Charlotte 
While sponging off his second wife when she was in North Carolina for a Mary Kay pyramid seminar this March, Halburn was involved in pool incidents at at least 2 different hotels. The police were called in the second incident and Hallburn was escorted out of the hotel along with an unnamed minor boy. Shortly after they returned home, his second wife was fired from a teaching job she had held for a number of years, allegedly over her husband's behavior.

Falsifies Own Poll Results

As part of the pathetic "redesign" of his blog, Hallburn added a poll on a sidebar which he loads up with slanted questions. But, Hallburn being Hallburn can't leave anything alone that goes against his preconceived ideas, so he alters the results to make them give the answer he wants. When we called him on it, he went so far as to accuse HIS readers of stacking the poll.

And we end our year with Halburn's latest escapade.

Thrown Out Of Strayer University

In May Halburn was thrown out of Strayer University in Teays Valley where he was attending grad school for a degree in, are you ready for this, Human Relations. Yeah, we got a good laugh out of that too.

But seriously, he went in, caused a big stink, threatened the Dean and was thrown out.

The best part? The Dean is a 4th Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo. She could have kicked his ass all the way back to California.

PutnamLIES.com was started to do one thing: Expose the lies that Mark Halburn was printing every day on his blog. The LIES we're talking about are his. We've been doing it now for two years, and he still doesn't seem to like it very much.

His advertisers have left and his readership numbers, which were greatly exaggerated in the first place, are WAY down. His endless whining about Walmart declined somewhat, but his Walmart blog is long gone.

He's slipped into utter irrelevance because of us and it kills him.

Now people are asking him about us.

But our job's still not over..
Here at PutnamLIES.com, we promise to continue to report the truth even if some loudmouth douchebag whines and cries about it. He was used to being able to do whatever he wanted without question. PutnamLIES.com will continue to call him on his unethical behavior and illegal practices, even as he continues to stalk Girl of Words and continues to embarrass himself with his bogus vendettas and accusations.

Readership and support for PutnamLIES.com continues to rise. Halburn and PutnumLive continues to embarass themselves.

Anytime a future employer Googles his name, they'll be able to find this site and see the truth about him. In fact the number one Google result for the word Halburn is a page that contains his mental evaluation.

Someday in the not too distant future, a little boy will be able to see just what kind of asshole his daddy really is.

The internet is forever. This site and the information on it will follow Hallburn around until the day he dies. Which can't come soon enough for us.

We'd also like to thank all our loyal readers, our correspondents Harry Stamper and Dolemite and the other members of the Trash Bloggers Alliance: Girl of Words, Tyler Hollywood, Lee, Lenny, Tybois and all the rest. We couldn't do what we do without the help and input of our readers.

Our work here is not done. Our output may have slowed but that's only because we have forced the other publisher to alter the way he does business.

We are not going away.

We'll be all around in the dark. We'll be everywhere.

Wherever you can look; wherever he's smeared someone because they won't submit to his demands - we'll be there. Wherever Hallburn's pickin' on a woman - we'll be there. When he harasses people at their workplace - we'll be there.

And when people laugh and clap their hands when they hear he's leaving, we'll be there, too.



We're watching you, Hallburn. The all seeing eye never blinks.



PutnamLIES.com will be here one day longer than Hallburn and his cluttered opinion blog.

What's in store for the next year? Only Halburn's behavior can determine that.

But, keep watching PutnamLIES.com for a revealing new series of articles.

HALLBURN ORDERED TO REMOVE ADS!

Opinion Blog Caught In Another Lie

The Secretary Of State's office has ordered Hallburn to remove the Tennant & Ireland ads from his opinion blog immediately due to violation of election law.

Sources tell PutnamLIES.com that both campaigns were furious that Halburn used their ads without authorization.

PutnamLIES.com reported two weeks ago that he was running an unauthorized campaign ad for Republican gubernatorial candidate Betty Ireland about a week after he started running one for a Democrat candidate, Natalie Tennant.
Turns out BOTH of them were both unauthorized.

Halburn commented last week that the ads were endorsed by the candidates' campaigns. Again, not true.
He said they were paid for by the candidates' supporters who also supplied the logos for the ads.

Will he have an explanation?
Probably something like "They only paid for February", or some such shit. No candidate buys a two week ad. If you have proof, Hallburn, produce it. We'll run it here along with your explanation.

Won't happen.

Why not?

Because he's a pussy that doesn't have the guts to show his face here. He reads us all the time, but he's not man enough to try and defend himself here.
He knows he's been caught, but his mental illness does not allow him to admit that he's wrong.

The candidates and their supporters want NOTHING to do with Hallburn and his opinion blog. They are making a stand for ethical reporting and the large, growing audience of readers that LOVE PutnamLIES.com, which broke yet another daily readership record today!

Here at PutnamLIES.com we promise to continue to report the truth even if a pinhead from Putnam County whines and throws a fit every time we lift up the rug and expose what he has been up to. Trouble is, he was used to being able to do whatever he wanted without question. Now that PutnamLIES.com is here, we call him on his unethical behavior and immoral practices, even when he harasses our publisher, commenters and readers.

Readership and advertising support for Putnumlive.com continues to decline. Hallburn continues to embarrass himself.

We will have more as it develops.

RELATED STORIES: 
Halburn Endorses Ireland 
Halburn Refuses To Remove Political Ad
The Facts Don't Lie
Halburn Continues to Prevaricate In Election Ad Controversy

Halburn Endorses Ireland

Her Lack Of Action Indicates Acceptance
Free Ad Obviously An Anti Sorsaia Measure

In 2009, Halburn deliberately misrepresented the fact that Debra Girimont, a candidate for the House of Delegates, was a sponsor of the Putnam County Tailgate Party when she was merely a participant. A fact that PutnamEYES.com revealed and Halburn refused to retract even when the candidate called him on it.

Now he has done it again. On February 13, Hallburn placed an ad on his opinion blog for Betty Ireland, a candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, without her permission. The difference is, this time the candidate is not willing to do anything about it.

After spotting the ad, PutnamLIES.com knew that Ms Ireland was not at fault, she was yet another victim of the unscrupulous publisher of PutnumLive.com, Mark Hallburn. He was merely using her ad as a means to further his own political agenda and satisfy a personal vendetta.

Her campaign was notified about this immediately and has taken absolutely no action. And as the ad is still up, there are only two explanations. Either they just don't care or they approve of Halburn running the ad. Neither bodes well for her.

We believe it is a case of just not caring. Maybe they believe that Halburn doesn't have enough readers to make it worth their time. They're right about the readers, but not right about letting this slide. He is a content thief who makes a practice of doing exactly what he did with her ad.

Betty Ireland

Ms. Ireland, we have just two questions for you.

If you're this indecisive as a candidate over this issue, how effective would you be as governor?

If you're not willing to take a decisive stand on Halburn running this ad without your permission, how can the people of West Virginia trust that you'll do the right thing when faced with tough decisions?
You could have picked up the phone yourself and told the fat thief to remove the ad.
We're sure you have lawyers working for your campaign, you could have used one of those.
By letting him continue to run this ad, you are accepting his endorsement and condoning his theft.
Having a Governor that says one thing and does another is not what West Virginia needs. The buck stops with you. Your word should be your bond.
For you to allow this unauthorized ad to continue to run on his site is a slap in the face to every voter in Putnam County and West Virginia. Halburn is a bully. This is exactly how he gets away with things like this. People think it's too much trouble to do anything. Which emboldens him even more. It is simply political poison for any candidate to have anything to do with him. You should run away from him instead of being Facebook friends with a domestic terrorist.
You stand up to a bully. A public denunciation from you would have gone a long way with your would-be constituents and demonstrated some leadership against this civic menace.
Halburn, we condemn your biased, underhanded, unscrupulous, unethical behavior. These examples show just how low you will go to to make yourself appear to be a legitimate journalist.
Once again you have proven yourself to be the hack we all know you are.

UPDATE: Here's a comment Halburn left elsewhere because he's not man enough to leave one here:
"It also reported that the ad is not endorsed by the candidate's
campaign. Again, not true. It is paid for by her supporters who also
supplied the logo for the ad."

Someone's lying. Who do YOU believe?


RELATED STORIES:
Halburn Refuses To Remove Political Ad
Halburn Ordered To Remove Ads!
The Facts Don't Lie
Halburn Continues to Prevaricate In Election Ad Controversy

FUCKHEAD SAYS HURRICANE LEVY NO LONGER NEEDED
Claims City Already Has Enough Money


There was a time when the
City of Hurricane was a quiet little town.
That time has come
and gone.

Because several years ago, an out of state douchebag
moved to town and immediately started causing trouble.

Now, in an unsigned "editorial" that is nothing more than another one of his thinly disguised personal rants,
Mark Halburn continues to unethically promote his own self interest by ostensibly railing against an excess levy.
It's really nothing more than a continuation of his personal vendetta against local politicians and government employees. Sure, nobody likes paying their taxes, especially goatse boy, but this goes beyond that.

He whines that the Hurricane city council "arrogantly refused to vote to pave the last dirt road in town."
What road might that be?
Grace Drive of course. The very street that the author lives on.
Is this fact disclosed in the article?
Of course not.

Then he says, "Since the last Excess Levy passed, electric and water rates have had double-digit percentage increases. Gasoline prices are at $2.55 a gallon and were above $4 a gallon, causing a huge financial strain on families and businesses that they are just starting to recover from. Putnam County voters recently generously passed a school bond that will increase their property taxes at a time when many are without jobs or have taken pay cuts. Health insurance premiums are at record levels."

But that only happened to you, right?
No, dickwad, it happened to everyone, INCLUDING city governments.
Their costs have gone up too, same as everybody else.

And he continues,"...Hurricane voters can't afford afford to vote for a renewal of the Excess Levy. The $8 a month figure that Edwards is using in his rhetoric adds up to $96 a year, which most of us can use to pay a utility bill."

$8.00 a week? You eat that much in candy bars, fatboy.
You know what, asshole? Our utility bills might not be as expensive if you'd quit filing frivolous complaints with the PSC every time your power goes out for 9 minutes.

Then he wants someone to, "Convince the Putnam County Development Authority to redevelop the neighborhood next to Walmart. This will also help the Hurricane Marketplace/Walmart Shopping Center attract more tenants providing even more jobs and revenue."

Which you hope will put money into your pocket, shitbag.
How convenient. Do you disclose that your wife and mother-in-law own property in the very neighborhood about which you write? The very property that you forced your wife to decline a offer that was made to buy it?
Hell no you don't.

And
"Eliminate the wasteful city manager salary"

You've had a hard on for Ben Newhouse since he wouldn't roll over and kiss your enormous ass.

You're a biased, unethical piece of shit.

For a "man" that doesn't have the guts to stand for election, you've sure got all the answers for Hurricane's problems.

And the county says the fair market value of your wife's property is $89,100. You can bet your big ass if they assessed it for $399,000, you'd be down there screaming.

You want to talk about a tax scam?
Let's talk about someone that runs a business out of his wife's home, brags about how much money it generates and then doesn't pay ONE DIME of B&O taxes to the City of Hurricane.
Let's talk about that.